FaceTime and iMessage have a cryptographic architecture that enables prospective wiretapping, but there is reason to believe that Apple not is fully complying with lawful pen-register and trap-and-trace court orders.

Alan Z. Rozenshtein, a former contributor to Lawfare who now works at DOJ, has a new article forthcoming in Stanford Law Review, "Surveillance Intermediaries," analyzing the role of corporate actors such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and others, that dominate digital communications and data storage, situated between government and targets of surveillance.

In the news round-up, Alan Cohn and I dive deep on the Government Oversight Committee's report on the OPM Hack, the ongoing fight between Apple and the EU, and the latest PlayPen decision in United States v. Torres.

A researcher has now demonstrated it is possible to unlock an iPhone using a technique the FBI claimed would not work in the San Bernardino controversy earlier this year, further strengthening the case against legislative mandates on encryption.